Page 77 of Stone Cold Touch

Zayne’s eyes met mine. “Truth?”

I nodded.

“I really didn’t know at first why I didn’t when...well, when I could have. It’s as though I’d never been interested enough to go through with it the whole way. It wasn’t until the past year that I realized why.” He paused, and my heart was picking up its pace again. “It’s because of you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah.” He picked up a few strands of my hair, twisting the length around two of his fingers. “I would get to a certain point and all I could think about was you and that seemed wrong. You know, to continue with someone else when I was picturing being with you.”

Oh my God...

My heart exploded into a gooey pile of Zayne mush and parts of my body got all kinds of excited at the fact that he’d been picturingme,thinking aboutmein that way for far longer than I could ever have known.

Zayne placed the strands of hair he’d been playing with on my shoulder, letting them slowly unravel. “So what are we going to do about it?”

My mind jumped right into the gutter and started playing happily with the idea of how we’d rectify our virginity issues, but I doubted that was what he meant. After sweeping the dirtier stuff out of my brain, I opened my mouth, but he placed a finger over my lips.

“You don’t have to answer just yet,” he said. “I know this isn’t easy. Nothing between us will be easy and I know you have a lot of fears. I don’t want to push you or push this, because I know...” Pausing, he nodded as if he was telling himself to say something. “I know you still care abouthim—about Roth.”

I drew back. “I—”

“I know,” he said solemnly. “It’s not something that I’m happy to say out loud or even think, but I know you do. You shared...shared a lot with him and he was there when I wasn’t.”

I knew he was thinking about the night Petr attacked me, when I’d tried calling him and he hadn’t answered because he’d been mad at me and he’d been with Danika. He still hadn’t forgiven himself for that. “Zayne, that night wasn’t your fault.”

“I should’ve answered the phone, but that’s not the point. He’s been there for you and he accepted you for who you were. Something else I haven’t always been really great at.” He ran his finger along my jaw and then dropped his hand. “Anyway, I know you still have feelings for him, but I’m saying we can give this a chance—we can give us a chance.”

My heart stuttered and then sped up. Zayne was right. As much as I hated to admit it, I still had feelings for Roth, but...but there was Zayne and there was our history together. There were all the years I’d spent idolizing and dreaming about him. There was everything he’d just said to me now.

And then there was everythingIfelt for him. The way I looked forward every day to seeing him. How he made me smile with the simplest of looks and the way I yearned for the briefest touch, to be able to kiss him. There had always been something there between us. I’d just always believed it was only on my side.

He smiled a little. “So I think we should take it slow.”

“Slow?” Slower than baring my chest and sitting in his lap?

“Yeah, like let’s go out on a date. How about that?”

My first response was to say no. There was too much risk...and if I was being honest with myself, I was scared—terrified of finally getting something I’d always wanted. What if it didn’t work out for any of the million reasons why it couldn’t? What if it ended in disappointment and destroyed our friendship? What if Zayne lost his soul because of me?

There were so many risks, but as my heartbeat skipped, I realized that half demon or not, life was full of risks and I was tired ofnotliving—of not trying.

A date couldn’t be bad, right? I stared at him as my lips spread into a wide smile. “How does a movie sound?”

Zayne stayed up the following morning after returning from hunting, and drove me to school. To the clan, that didn’t seem out of place, and Nicolai was probably thrilled to be relieved of the duty.

Things were normal between us.

He teased me.

He made me blush.

He made me want to hit him at some point during the drive.

And when I arrived at school, the way he leaned in and pressed a sweet kiss to my cheek made me wish I could give him a worthy goodbye kiss.

I wasn’t sure what our relationship was. Were we dating? Were we boyfriend and girlfriend? Nothing like that had been established, and it was probably for the best at the moment. In spite of wanting to take the risk, I wasn’t sure we could pull this off.

Or if trying made me the most selfish person in the world.

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